Rolling bearings are well known mechanical components which are used to rotatably support for example rotating shafts and the like. There are numerous types of rolling bearings available on the market, such as ball bearings and roller bearings of different designs. These bearing types can generally be used in many different applications, and some are more useful and designed for certain circumstances. Some rolling bearings are mainly designed to accommodate radial loads, some are mainly designed to accommodate axial loads and further some bearing types are designed to accommodate a combination of radial and axial loads. In addition, there are also bearing designs which are made to accommodate radial and axial loads, but also moment loads (e.g. yaw or bending moment loads). An example of a bearing that can accommodate radial, axial and moment loads is a double row tapered roller bearing that may present a split inner ring, a single outer ring and two rows of tapered roller elements interposed in-between the rings. Such a bearing may be designed with a so called O- or X-configuration, also known as a face-to-face or back-to-back configuration.
For rotating applications which are large in size and where there are high loads present, there is most likely a need for a bearing of a larger size, for example a bearing providing an outer diameter being larger than 0.5 meters. During operation of the bearing, when it is exposed of different types of loads (radial, axial and/or moment loads), the running performance may be affected negatively leading to a reduced service life of the bearing. One example of a demanding application which is large in size is a wind turbine. A wind turbine can be designed with different bearing configurations and arrangements. In one example, the wind turbine main shaft is supported by only one bearing, such as the double row tapered roller bearing which can accommodate axial, radial and moment loads, as mentioned above. Other examples of industries that uses rotating machinery which are large in size are mining, mineral processing, process industry, construction machines, marine, ocean energy etc. For applications comprising rolling bearings, there is most often a big advantage if the rolling bearings provide a long service life.